SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military exercises next week, focusing on improving their combined deterrence and defense capabilities against growing nuclear threats from North Korea, the allies said Monday.
The exercises could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which portrays them as invasion rehearsals and has used allies’ military cooperation as a pretext to advance the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems.
South Korean and U.S. military officials said this year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, scheduled for Aug. 19-29, will include computer-simulated drills designed to improve preparedness against threats such as missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, as well as simultaneous field maneuvers and live-fire exercises.
The allies aim in particular to “further strengthen (their) capacity and posture of deterrence and defense against weapons of mass destruction,” military officials said at a joint press conference.
Lee Sung Joon, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about 19,000 South Korean troops would participate in the drills, which he described as a “critical part of maintaining a strong defense posture to protect the Republic of Korea,” using South Korea’s official name.
Ryan Donald, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea, would not comment on the number of U.S. troops participating in the drills and said he could not immediately confirm whether the exercises would involve U.S. strategic assets. In recent months, the United States has increased its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carrier strike groups to train with South Korean and Japanese assets in a show of force against the North.
“This exercise will reflect realistic threats in all domains, such as missile threats from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and we will learn from recent armed conflicts,” Trump said, invoking the North’s official name.
“South Korean and U.S. units will conduct combined all-domain field training exercises. The field maneuvers and live-fire exercises will strengthen alliance interoperability while showcasing our combined capabilities and resolve,” he said.
In addition to its military exercises with the United States, the South Korean military will support the country’s civil defense and evacuation drills from Aug. 19 to 22, which will include programs based on North Korean nuclear attack scenarios, Lee said.
Animosity is high on the Korean Peninsula as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to use Russia’s war against Ukraine as an opportunity to accelerate weapons development while making verbal threats of nuclear conflict to Washington and Seoul.
In response, South Korea, the United States and Japan have expanded their combined military exercises and refined their nuclear deterrence strategies built around American strategic assets.
Last year, during the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests that it described as a simulation of “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.
In recent weeks, the North has also sent thousands of balloons carrying trash toward the South, part of a bizarre campaign of psychological warfare that has further deteriorated relations between the war-torn rivals.
South Korea’s military said Monday that the North launched about 240 balloons over the weekend, but only 10 of them landed in the South, all in areas north of the capital, Seoul. The balloons were carrying waste paper and plastic bottles, and no hazardous substances were found, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
It was the first time North Korea had sent balloons toward the South since July 24, when trash carried by at least one of them fell on the South Korean presidential compound, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key South Korean infrastructure. The balloon did not contain any hazardous materials and no one was injured.
Also Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol named presidential security chief Kim Yong-hyun, one of his closest confidants, as defense minister. Kim will replace Shin Won-sik, who was tapped to be Yoon’s new national security adviser, according to the presidential office.
As a candidate for a cabinet post, Kim is subject to a parliamentary hearing, though Yoon can nominate him even if lawmakers object. Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda through the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Liberals have often criticized Yoon’s national security policies as hawkish and called for greater efforts to revive dialogue with the North.
